Wave power’s ship still hasn’t come in.

Despite the best efforts of engineers, the idea of generating electricity from ocean waves has proven hard to execute. Companies here and abroad have tested a variety of devices to do it, but the sea keeps chewing them up.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has been an enthusiastic wave-power backer for years, studying several locations along the California coast as possible sites for wave power devices. But the utility has finally given up on the idea, at least for now.

“We still believe there’s a lot of potential in that technology as a source of renewable energy,” said PG&E spokesman Denny Boyles. “It doesn’t seem like it’s ready to have utility-scale deployment. At that point, we’ll be ready and willing customers.”

The company abandoned one of its wave-power projects off the Humboldt County coast last fall. An earlier “wave park” project, near Eureka, died after the California Public Utilities Commission blocked it.

PG&E also considered planting wave-power devices in the waters off Vandenberg Air Force Base, in Santa Barbara County. But now the company has ditched that project as well.

Designs vary, but most wave-power devices generate electricity as they bob up and down on the ocean’s surface. Undersea cables carry the electricity to land. But the sea punishes any device placed in it, as generations of sailors can attest.

(Tip of the hat to the Fort Bragg Advocate-News for breaking this story. You can read it here.)